Chapter 164
Sa Jae-Hyeok was sitting at the head of the table, having a meeting with the executives.
“Hmm, I see. What are the grades of the new recruits this time?”
“Yes. We’ve recruited two new members who have advanced to Epic grade in their first class advancement.”
“Not bad.”
Advancing to Epic grade in the first class advancement meant having the opportunity to potentially acquire a Legendary job like his own in the future.
Of course, most people failed to seize that opportunity.
The path to Legendary was extremely narrow.
However, there was a possibility that someone like him could break through to the Legendary path, so it was a case where they absolutely had to recruit them.
“But what about Hwa-rang? Weren’t you certain that he was the only one who would reach Legendary grade?”
Sa Jae-Hyeok sighed.
That was true.
He had no doubt that with Lee Hwa-rang’s potential, he would 100% ascend to Legendary in the next 5th class advancement.
But now, Lee Hwa-rang couldn’t even log into the game.
“It’s fine. At least his suspension was reduced to 9 months, so he just needs to endure that.”
9 months, they said.
In reality, that was enough time to fall behind as a ranker.
The executives inwardly blamed Sa Jae-Hyeok for making such an absurd bet, but they couldn’t express it openly.
If they dared to point it out, their heads would roll.
“More importantly, it seems Park Jin-Hyeok has gone over to Ho-Yeong.”
“No matter how I think about it, we should have kept Park Jin-Hyeok…”
“He’s a level 339 Lord Knight, after all.”
The executives genuinely regretted his departure.
Even if he was overshadowed by Lee Hwa-rang, he was still a Unique grade player over level 300.
His skills were genuine.
Sa Jae-Hyeok would be lying if he said he didn’t regret Park Jin-Hyeok’s departure, but he was also extremely resentful of his actions.
Posting on World Com that he was leaving Myth.
It was the same as threatening Myth.
“He tried to threaten Myth. He deserves to be beaten to death. If anyone mentions his name again, I’ll tear their mouth apart.”
As a murderous aura emanated from Sa Jae-Hyeok, the executives all fell silent.
* * *
World Com was ablaze in real-time.
[Wow… there’s a dungeon that gives 150 million experience points]
– Where the hell is that?
└Shouldn’t you be at least level 400 for that?
└150 million isn’t just anyone’s name lol
└Why aren’t they sharing the location?
└Come on, it’s a honey tip~~
The reason for the uproar was none other than HoneyTube.
It was fine that he cleared an undiscovered dungeon as a honey tip, but he ended the broadcast without revealing the location of the 150 million experience point dungeon.
Even after a day had passed, World Com was still ablaze with the same topic.
“It should be okay to upload it now, right?”
Jeong-hoon was currently outside the capsule.
It was to share the location of the dungeon.
The current time was 3 PM.
Unable to delay any longer, he entered the community and wrote a post.
[This is HoneyTube. I will reveal the location of the dungeon.]
* * *
“The City of Warriors!”
“Damn it! It was there all along!”
As soon as Jeong-hoon shared the dungeon’s location, countless users flocked to the City of Warriors.
Users below level 200 gave up in tears, but those above 201 were eager to conquer the dungeon immediately.
“What, what are so many people doing here?”
“What’s going on?”
The warriors residing in the city looked puzzled.
“Where exactly was the location?”
“They said it was near the border?”
“Okay!”
“Let’s take the search quest and go. That way we can get more experience points.”
While the users were leaving to conquer the dungeon, Jeong-hoon left the City of Warriors.
[It’s quiet without people around.]
‘Usually, these fields would be full of outsiders.’
In the usual atmosphere of the field, many users should be fighting for spots.
However, perhaps due to the aftermath of the broadcast, he could witness the rare sight of no competition for spots.
Jeong-hoon passed through the field and reached the ‘City of Peace,’ the heart of Rease
The reason he came to the City of Peace instead of directly visiting the City of Archers.
It was to meet an NPC.
===
[NPC Information]
-Nickname: Nagast
-Level: 205
-Occupation: General store owner
===
He was running a general store in this City of Peace.
“Yes? What are you looking for?”
Nagast, like a true merchant, greeted Jeong-hoon politely.
“I’m here to buy monster feed.”
“Hmm? You look like a martial artist, why are you looking for something a tamer would need?”
Nagast tilted his head in confusion.
“I need it.”
“Well, what species is it for?”
“A wolf.”
“Then how about this?”
He recommended meat made from monsters.
The ‘Giant Pig,’ which resembled a pig, was a typical example, and Giant Pig meat was also famous as a meat that people actually enjoyed eating.
“Hmm, then please give me 50kg of that.”
“5, 50kg? I don’t have that much… I have a little less than 30kg.”
Currently, there was a little less than 30kg of Giant Pig meat left.
Originally, he used to bring in 60kg at a time, but since it wasn’t selling that well and he valued freshness, he reduced the amount of meat he brought in to 40kg.
But as soon as he reduced the amount, a customer appeared wanting 50kg.
“Then do you have any other meat? My pet is a bit big, so 30kg might not be enough.”
“Just how big is it…?”
“It’s quite large, difficult to explain.”
“Hmm, then would you like some Gold Snake meat?”
Gold Snakes were monsters that resembled snakes.
It was meat obtained by catching those monsters, removing their heads and bones, and drying them.
“Yes, please give me that.”
Jeong-hoon purchased a total of 60kg of Giant Pig and Gold Snake meat.
This should be enough, right?
Unlike Michael, Fenrir needed to be fed regularly.
That’s why being a Tamer was a profession that required a lot of money.
You could control a giant monster like Fenrir as a powerful summon, but the downside was that you had to provide a large amount of food.
‘Michael is a saint in comparison.’
Perhaps because he was originally a soul, Michael was fine even without eating, so there was no need to spend money on him.
“Thank you very much!”
Nagast was all smiles.
“Yes. And I have one more question.”
“Go ahead. I’ll tell you in detail as far as I know.”
He was a customer who had bought a lot of meat.
Couldn’t he answer one of his questions?
“I want to visit the City of Archers, is there any way?”
“The City of Archers? You’re not an archer, why do you want to visit the City of Archers?”
Nagast tilted his head in confusion.
Most outsiders who visited the City of Archers were archers.
“I have something to do there.”
“Hmm… How about visiting the City of Martial Artists instead? They probably won’t accept you easily.”
All cities were like that, but the City of Archers, in particular, had a much stronger tendency to exclude users with other professions.
[Archers are so petty]
– What, they won’t even let you enter the city? Lol. That’s why they lost their territory to the City of Warriors and are just sulking.
└Crazy, just go hunt in your own city.
└Is the comment above an archer? Anyway, lol, both the NPCs and users are narrow-minded.
└I find it absurd too lol Other cities allow entry if you complete a quest, but the City of Archers doesn’t even give you a quest.
That’s right.
In the City of Warriors, for example, you could enter by simply completing a quest from the NPC guarding the city entrance.
But the City of Archers didn’t even offer quests.
Because you weren’t an archer.
“That’s why I came here.”
Jeong-hoon grinned.
“Huh? Why here?”
Nagast feigned ignorance.
“Why else? I heard this general store is good at disguises.”
“…Oh my, where did you hear that from?”
“1,000 gold. Would that be enough?”
Disguises.
They didn’t have a fixed price.
In other words, you had to name your price.
“…Follow me.”
Nagast led him to the warehouse of the general store.
Unlike a typical warehouse where things were just piled up, this one was neatly organized.
It was filled with mysterious items that couldn’t be seen from the outside.
‘He was originally a mage, wasn’t he?’
Nagast was currently a merchant, but in the past, he was a mage boasting exceptional skills.
However, those who were jealous of his talent framed him, and Nagast, deeply disillusioned, quit being a mage.
After that, he came to the City of Peace and made a living as a merchant.
He took out a subspace pocket from the warehouse and reached inside.
“Is it in there?”
“Yes, it is.”
Nagast rummaged around for a while and then took out a bag containing potions.
The bag was filled with glass bottles containing a green liquid.
[Superior Disguise Potion]
– Type: Potion
– Grade: Unique
– Allows you to disguise your appearance/occupation as desired for a week.
– The duration is one week, and to maintain it longer, you need to drink additional potions.
– To remove the disguise, ‘Purification’ is required.
A Unique grade potion, no less.
With this, he would be able to enter the City of Archers.
“Please give me about 20 of them.”
“1,000 gold per bottle. Can you afford it?”
A whopping Unique grade potion.
1,000 gold was about 10 million won in Korean currency.
20 of them would be a hefty 200 million won.
It wasn’t a cheap price, but Jeong-hoon readily paid 20,000 gold.
“…You have a lot of money.”
In addition to the 1 million gold he received from Sa Jae-Hyeok, Jeong-hoon’s gold was accumulating as he consistently received enhancement requests.
This amount was nothing to him.
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“Ahem, then would you like to see some other items?”
Only a very few could casually pay 20,000 gold.
Nagast didn’t want to miss this opportunity.
“No. This is enough for now.”
But Jeong-hoon flatly refused.
“Is that so…?”
Nagast fiddled with the subspace pocket with a disappointed look.
Besides the disguise potions, he had many other potions he had developed himself.
“Then, take care.”
Jeong-hoon took the 20 disguise potions and left the general store.
* * *
[Would you like to open the Random Rune Box (Unique)?]
Jeong-hoon, who had left the City of Peace, immediately opened the rune box.
[You have acquired the ‘Rune of Strength (Unique)’.]
Rune of Strength.
[Rune of Strength]
– Type: Rune
– Grade: Unique
– Strength stat increased by 5%
Although it didn’t have an overpowered option like the Rune of Extinction, the 5% increase in strength stat alone was very satisfying.
With the third class advancement, he could now equip up to six runes, so if he added the remaining four runes, he would achieve tremendous growth.
Jeong-hoon equipped the Rune of Strength and summoned Fenrir.
“…”
The summoned Fenrir started to be wary of Jeong-hoon.
The gigantic form he had seen earlier was nowhere to be found, and in its place was a baby wolf the size of a Pomeranian, baring its teeth at Jeong-hoon.
“You were begging for your life, and now you’re acting up? Should I cancel the taming and get rid of you?”
“…N-no.”
It had been tricked by Serion and sealed away for a long time.
Because of that, anger boiled within him whenever he saw a human.
But if he defied Jeong-hoon in front of him, he would die.
He had to at least pretend to obey in order to survive.
Having quickly made his decision, Fenrir rolled over and exposed his belly.
It was a sign of submission.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Jeong-hoon took out 60kg of Giant Pig and Gold Snake meat from his inventory.
Seeing the pile of meat, Fenrir’s salivary glands were stimulated, and drool started dripping from his mouth.
“…N-no, I’m not hungry.”
He was pretending to submit to him to survive, but he didn’t need food given by a human.
“Suit yourself.”
Jeong-hoon started putting the meat back into his inventory without hesitation.
Fenrir’s eyes twitched.
“What are you going to do with that meat…?”
“Ah, I’m going to share it with people.”
‘Share it with humans…?’
‘Wait, if that damn meat is going to end up in the stomachs of those humans, wouldn’t it be better if I ate it?’
Yes. He couldn’t let those humans get their fill.
“I want to eat…!”
“Really?”
Fenrir nodded his head rapidly.
“Then eat.”
As soon as permission was granted, Fenrir jumped towards the meat and started devouring it.
How long had it been since he last ate meat?
Even though Jeong-hoon had shrunk Fenrir, its original size was 15 meters tall, so he was confident he could easily eat this much.
‘Hmm… But why am I already full?’
However, after eating a few pieces of meat, he felt full.
If he ate any more, he would definitely throw up.
Fenrir eventually stopped eating and stepped back.
“Maybe it’s because you’re smaller. You can’t eat as much as I thought.”
Fenrir’s pride was hurt by Jeong-hoon’s words, and he scrunched up his face.
———-